As I mentioned in an earlier post, the boys love taking an evening drive through our neighborhood as an after dinner activity sometimes (most families love to go on after dinner walks...as would we if we weren't always so worried about the mosquitos that love us....so we opt for drives instead!). They love being out of their seats and taking turns sitting on Daddy's lap to practice driving. Evan has actually gotten really good at it, he even navigates the road very well without any help from Daddy. Cooper, on the other hand, likes to practice his "crazy driver" skills, so we have to keep our hands on the steering wheel with him at all times, even as he says "no, dada, me", "me, dada, me!" We've recently started taking the boys up this road that leads to the water storage tanks for the neighborhood and it's a really narrow path that is essentially carved out of the jungle, so it has an eery feel to it....especially in the evening as the sun is going down. So Andrew likes to tell the boys spooky stories about animals lurking in the jungle....the boys love it and yell everytime as Andrew bangs on the window to give them a fright! I was afraid it may start giving them nightmares or keep them up at nights, but nothing so far! I think they both realize it's pretend...although Cooper does seem to sit still a bit more when we go down it! Evan has now started calling it the "Spooky Trail". So they are even more excited for our evening drives now.....there definitely will be some things we will miss about Melaka and our quiet neighborhood...with the "spooky trail!"
Everyone knows that it's never what's inside a box that is the most interesting to little ones, it is the actual box itself, and in this case it was no different! Like I mentioned before, BeBe sent over a few boxes with lots of goodies (thanks for everything, Mom and Dad!) and most of it was Easter stuff, so I had to unpack it to put together the boys' Easter baskets for them...so they've yet to see everything that came in the boxes! But, they didn't need anything in the boxes, the box itself has provided days of entertainment since we received it! Evan's favorite thing was to put Cooper inside of it and then "seal" it up! I couldn't stop laughing because Cooper hopped in and stayed put so willingly! I thought he might not like the idea of confined spaces, but it looks like he isn't going to be any sort of claustrophobic. Evan even took a turn and once Cooper sealed him up, we pretended like we were mailing him back to the states. I carried him up to the front door and told him to wait until the postman came to pick him up to deliver him....he seemed alright with that since he didn't try getting out of the box....until I finally told him he couldn't leave me because I would be too sad without him! I'm really loving how well they are playing together lately. There is alot more getting along than there is fighting, so that has been really pleasant. I know these sorts of things come in waves, so I'm really enjoying this one and hope it lasts for awhile!!
Evan "sealing" himself up
And now it's Cooper's turn
"Put your head down, Coops"
"Stay in there, Coops"
I just had to get some video of this...Cooper actually seemed to be enjoying his big brother torture him!! This was Take One at "sealing Cooper up"
BeBe sent over a box (or several shall I say) with tons of Easter goodies, so I put the boys to work with helping to decorate.....if that is what you call it when you give a 22 month old and 3 1/2 year old BOYS window clings to stick to the windows and they all end up in TWO window panes!! At least they had the best time doing it and even took turns nicely! This was the end result....
So we are just hoping and praying that a move back to the states is in our near future because we sure hope we can get back before the heat of summer sets in in the states. I don't know if it's just the fact that we know that we'll be moving soon or that 3 years of alot of inside playtime is finally running its toll on us! We can hardly wait to get back to just run around at a park, have a picnic, feed the ducks....anything....and not worry about catching Dengue fever from some darn mosquito! So as we patiently wait for that news, we continue to visit every inside playgym we can to help burn off the energy of two very energetic little boys!
After the playgym, we headed to one of our new favorites, Papa Johns Pizza. They opened a couple of months ago. I was never a huge fan of it in the states, but it sure is better than the Pizza Hut and Dominos here. The pepperoni...even though still beef pepperoni...tastes much closer to what pepperoni should taste like. The boys were in rare form this afternoon and full of the giggles!
Okay, after the first part of the trip recap, I'm sure I've bored everyone out of their minds reading about all my boring details, so just take a look at the pictures on this one (there are a ton) and you'll get the gist of the rest of our trip. But since this may very well be the last time we visit Thailand (although I would love to visit the place again at some point in my future), I wanted to be sure I remembered what a wonderful time we had as a family. This was one of our first trips where BOTH boys were really able to particpate in everything and we were able to do lots more together as a family, since they are both getting big enough. I'm sure neither of them will ever remember it (especially Cooper) so I want to be sure they at least have the pictures from it! So here goes the rest....
Day 4
This woman was playing (I'm not even sure what type of Thai instrument it was, but it was very pleasant to listen to) every morning at breakfast, so we finally decided to get a picture of her with the boys
After breakfast, we decided to hit the beach again. Andrew had been wanting to take out the Hobie Cat from the moment we first got there, but there never looked to be enough wind. Well, today we got our chance. It was quite windy so the resort guy continued to ask A over and over if he knew what he was doing (I guess a little worried we'd get out there and tip over or maybe not be able to come back in). Andrew assured him he'd sailed on one before and knew what he was doing. What he didn't tell the guy was that the last time he sailed one was on our honeymoon....5 years ago....and it didn't look exactly the same (this one had a front sail on it)!! It was pretty funny in the beginning while Andrew got his bearings straight and figured out what he was doing...I think we had the resort guys a bit worried for awhile...so much so that one of them yelled "Do you know what you are doing"?? But once he figured it out, we were on our way and he did know what he was doing....and I have to say as "first mate" I did my fair share of helping out (although Andrew will never admit I did anything but give him a hard time). We sailed for about 20 minutes and then headed back in. We had a bit of a time on our first attempt at coming back in, but after swinging around for a 2nd attempt, we made it just fine. It was lots of fun and I think Andrew proved to himself that he still had it! Where were the boys while we were out sailing, you ask!?! Playing in the sand with the nanny of course....the perks of bringing along some help! And taking pictures of the boys....which is something she loves to do!
I think Marte bribed them to pose for her because in some of the other not-so-good pictures that I didn't post, I saw them having a piece of candy! Little stinkers!
After some beach time, we headed back to the pool to do some swimming. I never got any shots of the boys in the pool because as I mentioned before it was one that wound around the resort so we were never in one place for too long and I didn't want to just leave my camera lying around. I could have had Marte lug it around for me, but then that would have just been 100 more pictures I would have had to sift through! They boys loved floating around with us, playing under some of the waterfalls they had, playing in the jacuzzi area (it wasn't hot, just bubbles....actually the entire pool was pretty warm already), jumping off the sides, Evan loved the baby pool that was about 3ft deep because he practiced his "swimming" there and Cooper liked it because it had these stairs he loved to climb up and down on, and Cooper also loved the beach like pool area they had because he liked the fact that he could throw the sand from the side into the water since the bottom of the pool already had sand in it anyhow! So as far as pool time went, they had a fantastic time. Even better, it wore them out and they would both (even Evan) take a good nearly 3 hour nap each day! This is the time that Andrew and I would go out and have 3 to 4 hours by ourselves before we'd head back in to get ready for dinner. We'd usually get a massage and then head to the beach bar for a drink or back to the pool bar for one. We mainly just relaxed and had a great time together!
On the 4th night, the resort had a GM Cocktail hour for the guests who were staying in the villas, so we attended it before dinner this evening. The boys had another great night running around and having some more juice. They got tons of compliments about their matching camo cargo shorts. Evan even got out of his comfort zone and became quite the little poser with all the Thai girls that came in all dressed up to perform. He even posed next to the Thai band that was playing...I was completely shocked! And I'm not sure what got into my little social one, but he became quite shy this evening and didn't want close to anyone. So here are a few photos from that evening...
Cooper had no problem posing next to his favorite server, Jay. He made friends with her the first night we arrived and she always served us during lunch. He would go off with her and she would take him on shorts walks...they became instant friends!
They were mesmerized by the band...watch the video below to watch them grooving to the music...they had everyone watching them!
They also made friends with little Oscar, a Finnish little boy they met. He didn't speak much English, so their conversations were limited, but who needs language to chase each other around anyhow!?!! They had the best time playing together this evening.
We then headed down to the beach for another yummy seafood dinner....crab once again for Evan! Andrew even seemed to enjoy the crab and lobster, so you know it was good!
Stopping to pose with T at the end of the night, before we head back to the room to get these little stinkers ready for bed! They were in heaven because of all the extra playtime they got...bed time usually ended up being around 9 or 9:30. Unfortunately, this didn't have any impact on their wake-up schedule!! We were up and at it by 8am almost every day!
Since we'd had 5 days of fun in the sun, we decided we'd head back to the shopping center and see about doing a bit of shopping. So after breakfast, we decided to take the shuttle bus over. We actually just ended up doing alot of looking instead of buying. Since this was our 4th time in Thailand, there wasn't much we wanted to get....and we'd already done souvenirs for the family before so there really wasn't anything we were dying to get.
And then of course, we just had to ride the shuttle boat one more time...so we took it back to the resort where we had lunch and then put the boys down for naps.
I happened to get a shot of the beach-like pool I mentioned before one afternoon as A and I were headed to our massage....it reminded me of a funny story that happened while we were playing in it one of the days. It was very shallow at the front (it went up to Cooper's waist) and then would gradually get deeper. Well, of course, Cooper was never comfortable staying in the part of the pool he could touch, he always wanted to go into the deeper end. So Andrew and I had to keep a real close eye on him (he had his life jacket on, but still isn't comfortable with floating). And one time as Coop was making his way to the deeper part, he must have lost his footing and slipped under the water and then started flopping around like a fish out of water (you know hands in the air and all)...and it was only for a couple of seconds because I grabbed him as soon as I saw him slip, but the funny thing is that Evan turns around as he is watching Cooper doing this and says (with much excitement in his voice)..."Great job with your swimming, Cooper!" Hilarious....it was what we would continually tell them as they got braver about actually trying to swim! My little E, such the clever one!
Every afternoon around 3pm, Tiny Tim (as the boys called her) would come out to the beach to play with all the kids and adults. Since the boys were always napping during this time, I had to get a couple of pictures and videos of the them playing in the water. It was hilarious....this little elephant would do handstands in the water and then flip around....you wouldn't think something that size could do things like that, but she was! It was fun to watch....which is what Andrew and I usually did as we had our afternoon Shingha on the beach as well as some yummy corn!
Remember this grilled corn, Jen....is was the best! I remember the first time we all went together I couldn't enjoy it because of the braces I had on at the time. We'll I made up for it this time...yummy!
We tried for one good family shot while we were there, but this is the best we could get! I did get a couple of cute ones of the boys though!
Then we finally made it out to the beach in time to get a shot of the gorgeous sunset and like I mentioned before it happened to be on one of the cloudiest days that we were there...so this is what I got!
A darling shot of my love and my littlest one!
Cooper LOVES his rice!
Evan and his yummy carrots, I'm surprised I can still get him to eat more carrots with all the ones he had this week!
Our last beach dinner
Silly boys!
Evan met a couple of Russian boys while we were having dinner this evening and ran around with them for a bit but when they couldn't understand a single word he said and vice versa, the other two seemed to go off on their own. He didn't seemed bothered by it, but we did have a long conversation on the way back to our room about how there are hundreds of different languages and how there are different people from many different countries that don't understand one another and it's hard to communicate with one another so that is why the two boys didn't really want to play with him. He didn't say much, he only started talking to me in his "chinese" speak and that was when I was like "yes exactly, like now...I have no clue what you are saying! But we can still be friends" I guess we are getting to that age where we are to start having those kind of conversations....I'll have to prepare better next time!
After dinner, we did our usual....got the boys back to the room and off to bed! Funny enough, I think Andrew and I went to bed earlier on vacation than we usually do at home....that sun really takes it out of you! On the nights that we did go out, we either just went up to this area they had that had a live band (which wasn't that great, by the way...but I did manage to get Andrew to dance with me) or we just hung out on the beach chairs and listened to the sea, which is one of the things that both of us absolutely love about going to these islands....the peacefulness and serenity of the sea! It doesn't get more relaxing than that...which is why I had to force us up to get to bed one night, otherwise we would have fallen asleep out there!
Our last day
We go all the way to Thailand so they can ride a luggage cart! It's always the little things!
Here are a few shots of our place and the pool areas where we had a blast - we would recommend the place to anyone, it was wonderful!
While I was finishing packing and Andrew was checking us out, Marte took the boys to the Kids zone they had. I wished we'd discovered it before the last day we were there because they had tons of things to play with and they even had a daily art activity. Evan joined in on the last day (Cooper didn't have the patience) and made a fun kite.
It was nice and windy as we were leaving so he even got it flying....and it looks like I also captured him catching some air...go E!
I was trying to get an Easter picture before we left, but as usual it was next to impossible...this was about as good as it got!
It surprised me, but both the boys actually cooperated as we grabbed one last picture with Tiny Tim before catching the shuttle to the airport. I won't even go into the story about how Air Asia completely ripped us off by claiming we had gone 10kg over on our luggage allowance. It ended up costing us about $25 (after some negotiation) on weight we weren't even carrying!! I'm still fuming about getting taken advantage of...but as I said, I won't digress, I'll end on a good note by saying....bye - bye Phuket....it was a great trip! Hopefully, one day we'll be able to visit again! But we won't be taking Air Asia....
"Stay in there, Coops"
